Disclaimer: I don't own PJO.
Chapter Two
"Up, up, up! Get out of bed sleepyheads!" I heard the morning broadcast start on the TV. I sat up.
"Morning," said Katherine.
"Good morning," I answered.
"Is everyone up?" the broadcast continued. On the screen, the principle, Mr. Maylor, was off to the side, getting ready to take the mic. The school secretary, Ms. Baker, was the person talking. As soon as she was sure that everyone was up, she let Mr. Maylor take over.
"Good morning students," he said, "the announcements for today are very brief. The lunch special will be a beef stew. Today the basketball team will be playing a game against our rival, Goode High School." That was Percy's school. I was actually going to attend this game. That team that Percy was eating with was his school's basketball team. Percy was on that team. "Tickets are five dollars." Mr. Maylor continued. "And now we will turn our attention to one of the school's cheerleaders for gossip." The way he said gossip told me that he really couldn't care less about what the cheerleader was going to say.
"Hey guys! I'm Stacie!" she started, "First on the gossip agenda, is the Math Team breaking up?" a video played of a bunch of Asians fighting. She talked for about five minutes. "And for our last story, it looks like Annabeth Chase isn't single…" the video of Percy and me played. My face turned bright red, even though Katherine was the only one in here. Me and Percy's make-out session was still being broadcasted out to the entire school. "That's all for today! Have a great day!" she finished, and the TV turned black.
"Annabeth?" Katherine said.
"Yeah, I know. But don't worry. That was Percy." Katherine stared at me.
"Okay," she finally said. I got up and went to breakfast. Katherine followed. Our school serves breakfast on the first floor of every dorm. We took the stairs down. When we walked in, everyone stopped talking, telling me that I was the subject of their conversations. I filled my plate with bacon, and got a bowl of cereal. Katherine and I sat at a small table. Slowly, the talking started again. Parker walked over to our table. He stared down at me.
"What was that on the broadcast?" he asked angrily.
"My boyfriend," I said. Parker's eyes narrowed. He walked away in a huff. I finished my food and went back to my room. I brushed my hair and teeth. I put on denim capris and a tee shirt. I pulled my hair into a pony tail and put on flip-flops. I grabbed my backpack and left for my first class. I walked to the actual school. When I got there, I put my stuff in my locker, except for my math stuff. I closed my locker and turned around. My view was blocked by about five big guys, all who were on the football team. The season was over, but they still acted like they were the best people ever.
"So, Annabeth," the leader said, "it looks like you're a pretty good kisser. And if that was a total stranger, let's see what you can do with me."
"No," I said, "and it wasn't a complete stranger. I've known him for years."
"Aww, come on." He said, but he didn't even let me answer. He crushed his mouth on mine. I tried to push him back, but he wouldn't let me. One of his friends held my hands, and the others made it so that no one could see what was going on. He forced his tongue into my mouth, and his hands were on my butt. He pulled away. "See you tomorrow," he said, and left.
I grabbed my books and went to class. What was I going to do? That was probably the worst experience of my life. Should I tell somebody? No, I didn't want to get into that. But I will tell Percy. He'll be able to help me. I walked into the classroom. Nobody was in there, but that didn't surprise me. School didn't officially start for another fifteen minutes. I put my stuff down on my desk and went to buy my ticket for the game. The line was pretty long, because it was a rivalry game. I stood and waited. Someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around. A girl named Caroline was in line behind me.
"Was that really you?" she asked, "On the broadcast, I mean." I really hope my whole day wasn't going to be like this.
"Yes, it was me." I said and turned around. About five minutes later, I reached the front of the line. Two basketball players sat at a table with a money box and a bunch of tickets.
"Look who it is," one of them said. I find it awkward when someone knows me, and I don't know them. This happens a lot. I smiled at them.
"One ticket, please." I said, handing them five dollars.
"Sure," said the player. He took my money and gave me a ticket. I said thank you and went to class. The bell was going to ring in four minutes. When I walked in, the class was almost full. A couple of guys wolf-whistled as I took my seat.
"Classy." I said sarcastically to them. People in the room laughed. I sat through all of my classes. It was getting into a routine. In-between classes, people would ask me about Percy or the kiss. Right before class, everyone would have a discussion about it with me interrupting them when something wasn't true. During class, people would glance at me every once in a while, as if I was about to do a trick. And then it would all happen all over again. I other words, it was a long day.
Finally, the last bell rang, and we were free to go. I gathered my stuff and went to my locker. There was no homework because of the game, so I got my empty backpack and started walking back to my dorm. Katherine was in our room when I got there.
"Are you going to the game?" she asked me.
"Yeah," I answered. She looked surprised. Probably because I haven't ever gone to a game.
"Why the sudden interest?"
"We're playing Goode."
"Yeah, so? We've had other rival games."
"Yes, but certain people attend Goode High School, who don't attend other high schools." Katherine looked confused, but she dropped the subject. The game doesn't start until five. Now, it's three-thirty.
"Hey, Katherine," I said.
"Hmm?" she looked up from her phone.
"Why do so many people know my name? I don't know more than half of the people who know me." Katherine laughed. "What?" I asked.
"Really?" she said. I nodded. "Well, in high school, some people are popular. You are one of those people. So am I. And so are Hannah, Rebecca, and Paige." I listened as she listed off our group of friends. That did explain all of the attention.
"Oh," I said, "Okay. So what do you want to do?"
"Let's walk around the dorms." I agreed and we left. Now that I knew that I was 'popular' I noticed all of the guys staring and the girls waving.
"This is going to sound really lame," I said, "but why are we popular?"
"Well," said Katherine, "Me, Hannah, Rebecca, and Paige were always popular. You were a new student this year, and you were my roommate and we became friends. Therefore you met Hannah, Rebecca, and Paige. Therefore, you are popular. Plus, you're really pretty. That always helps." I know most people would be ecstatic to find out that they're popular, but I didn't really feel any different. My friends were still my friends, and just because we got a lot of attention, we're still nice to everybody. We're not stereotype 'popular' mean girls. We walked around for a while, then started to head to school for the game. It was a home game.
When we got there, it was packed. Not just with people from our school, but people from Goode too. We handed in our ticket and took our seats. Hannah and Paige were already there, saving our seats.
"Hey!" Paige said, "Rebecca threw up, so she's not coming." I sat with Hannah to my right, and Katherine to my left. The teams were on the sidelines, and students were walking all over the court talking to players. The Goode team people were sitting on the bench talking to some people from their school. I recognized every single one of them from the restaurant. Percy was sitting towards the middle of them all.
"Hey," I said, "I'll be right back." I got up and started walking toward the court. Percy saw me coming and smiled. He waved me over. I walked a little faster and reached him. He stood up and gave me a hug.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey. I came just to watch you." I told him, "No pressure." Percy gave me a quick kiss. When his team saw me, they got really excited.
"Do you go here?" the one whose name I'd learned was Max asked.
"Yeah," I answered. I sat down on the bench by Percy. He made his friend, Daren, scoot over for me, so now I sat between them. I felt people's eyes on us. Just as many people from my school as from his. I probably looked really out of place. Mainly because I was a girl, but I was also wearing a school tee shirt. Percy had his arm around me. I was talking and laughing with his team. After a while, the referee said to clear the courts, and I had to go back to my seat. When I sat down, my friends started bombing me with questions.
"Is that the guy?" Hannah asked. I nodded.
"Is he your boyfriend?" Paige asked. I nodded.
"Wait, so that's Percy?" Katherine asked. I nodded. "He's a lot hotter in person." All of my friends nodded. They had all seen pictures. We talked throughout the game. It lasted a long time. In the end, Goode beat us by two points. The people from their school erupted in cheers. I had watched Percy the whole game. He was very good. Girls from his school surrounded him and the team. I have to say I was a little disappointed about the game. But I'm happy for Percy. Once the crowd started to leave, I walked towards Percy.
"Annabeth, where are you going?" I heard Hannah say.
"Oh, tell Katherine I'll be in the room later." I said over my shoulder. I went to Percy. He tried to give me a hug, but I pushed him back.
"You're all sweaty!" I said over the lasting noise. Percy laughed, and hugged me anyway. I hugged him back, although, he was kind of stinky. I saw lots of girls glaring at me. "You smell bad." I told Percy.
"Really?" he answered, "That's nice." After about thirty minutes of people talking to the team and congratulating them, the crowd was gone. The only people left were me, both teams, and their coaches. I stood with Percy and his team. We were in a sort of circle. Their main coach walked towards us.
"Good job men," he said looking at each face in the team. He didn't notice me at first because all of the guys were so much taller than me. "This was a hard game." He was looking at the team as a whole now. His eyes rested on me. Then my school shirt, then Percy's arms around me. "Who are you?" he asked. The entire team, including Percy, burst out in laughter.
"My name is Annabeth Chase." I said.
"Daughter of Athena, and official architect of Olympus." Percy whispered in my ear so that only I could hear. I smiled.
"And why are you here?" the coach asked.
"Um…" I didn't know what to tell him.
"Mr. Jackson," the coach said, now addressing Percy, "how do you know her?"
"It's complicated." Percy answered.
"I'm sure I can keep up."
"Um, well, when we were twelve, we met at camp. We went on a…vacation." A Vacation? Our first quest was far from a vacation.
"And then we became friends," I said, "and we both kept in touch and spent our summers at camp. We went on multiple vacations, and here we are now."
"So are you friends?" the coach asked, "Or are you dating?"
"Well," Percy said, "we're dating. But it's okay because she doesn't go to Goode." Apparently at Goode, if you're on a sports team, you can't date anyone at school. They say it messes up your concentration. That's why Percy is the only one who is dating. The coach looked skeptical, but he went on with what a great job everyone did. After the coach was done, we went out for frozen yogurt. A team of sweaty high schoolers and one girl can get you some funny looks. We pushed a bunch of tables together to make room for everyone. I sat by Percy, of course, and a guy named Nathen.
"So," said Daren, "where have you two been on vacation?" Percy and I looked at each other.
"Uh, we've been to Mount Saint Helens." I said.
"And Vegas," said Percy.
"And the Bermuda Triangle,"
"And lots of little towns in different places in the country,"
"And we've been to Saint Louis,"
"And we've gone underground lots of times,"
"And San Francisco,"
"Okay!" said one of the players, "You've been to lots of places." We laughed.
"You have no idea," I said. We ate and talked for almost three hours. Percy walked me to my dorm, but this time he kissed me outside the building. It wasn't like last night's make-out session. It was short, but sweet, and meaningful.
"I love you." Percy said. I was shocked. Did he really just say that? And more importantly, do I say it back? I wasn't going to say it if I didn't mean it. I thought for a few moments, and sorted out my feelings. I looked Percy in the eye.
"I love you, too." He smiled and took my hand. We walked up to my dorm. Percy kissed my cheek before saying goodbye and going home. I went into my room to find Katherine waiting for me. As soon as I walked in, she stood up and put her hands on her hips.
"Where have you been?" She asked.
"I've been with Percy and his teammates." I answered truthfully. Katherine sighed and shook her head.
"It's only five minutes until curfew. If you were any later, you would have been in so much trouble.
"Yeah, well I'm here," I said while changing into my pajamas. We were told by some adult to go to sleep, and I was happy to do so.